Hey, this is Alex, and very quickly before we start, we are running a contest in the month of April,

where if we get 150 new premium members, five of them will get some free Hyperfix merch.

The winner will get to select any piece of merch of their choosing, and we will send it to them.

You can see all of it atmerch.hyperfixpod.com, and if more than 150 people sign up, more people will win.

You can become a premium member

at hyperfixedpod.com slash join. This show is completely independent and relies on the support of our

listeners. And our goal this year is 1,500 new members so that I can give the staff raises and pay for

their health care. All right, that's it. Hyperfixpod.com slash join for your chance to win some free

merch. Here's the show. Hi, I'm Alex Goldman, and this is Hyperfix. Each week on our show,

listeners write in with their problems big and small, and I solve them. Or at least I try. And if I don't,

I at least give a good reason why I can't. This week, Fobituaries.

I'm not sure how big this problem is. It could be on one end of the spectrum, just a lazy little

nothing problem. On the other, we pull the thread and go down the rabbit hole, Alex. It could

potentially lead into some sort of crazy syndicate bot farm thing.

This is Marcus. He's 35 years old. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia. And despite this

adorably conspiratorial pitch he just made to me, Marcus is actually a very normal guy. He works in

sustainability reporting. He just became a father, and he's married to a

wonderful woman who he literally calls, my wonderful wife. So how did the normal guy with the

wonderful wife come to be talking about rabbit holes in syndicates? Well, it's actually a pretty

sad story, and it started about two months ago.

On February 16th, Marcus and his wife got a call.

That kind of call that people in their 30s never expect to get.

...